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Posted on 10/15/2001 9:16:06 AM PDT by Native American Female Vet

WASHINGTON (AP) In the summer of 1824, an aging French...

By Lawrence L. Knutson, Associated Press, 10/15/2001 01:12

WASHINGTON (AP) In the summer of 1824, an aging French aristocrat with a legendary passion for liberty crossed the Atlantic and went on the road.

The return to America of Marie Jean Paul Joseph Roche Yves Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette, soon became a legend all its own.

Over the next 14 months, Lafayette traveled thousands of miles and visited all 24 states. After an absence of 40 years he was thronged, feasted and endlessly toasted throughout.

Lafayette mania ruled America.

There were reasons Americans longed to salute the 67-year-old Frenchman they quickly dubbed ''The Nation's Guest.''

The 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence was rapidly approaching. Lafayette was the last surviving general officer of the American Revolution and a steady advocate of its ideals before his death in 1834. As a young volunteer in 1776 he had poured his own fortune into the cause.

Many saw him as a living link to George Washington who had admired and virtually adopted the young Frenchman.

Cannon salutes roared out from the moment Lafayette landed in New York City. Small boys climbed trees to see him. Ladies waved white handkerchiefs as he passed.

There were parading soldiers, illuminations, banners, bonfires, triumphal arches and countless reunions with grizzled but enthusiastic revolutionary veterans.

''There was, in fact, no town where Lafayette was not anxiously awaited, no state which could bear to miss his visit,'' one biographer wrote.

Arriving in Washington, the general was ushered into the rotunda of the Capitol while cannon boomed outside and thousands of people ''rent the air with acclamations of joy and welcome.''

At a dinner that evening Lafayette delighted his hosts with the toast: ''The City of Washington, the central star of the constellation which enlightens the whole world.''

There was gold amid the glitter.

Aware that the French Revolution and the wars that followed had drained Lafayette's fortune, Congress voted him $200,000 and 25,000 acres of federal land in Florida.

Being Congress, it couldn't quite do it without debate.

Sen. Nathaniel Macon of North Carolina said that, while it was true Lafayette had spent much money in the service of the United States, so had many native-born Americans.

That was no reason not to compensate Lafayette, Sen. Robert Hayne of South Carolina replied.

Hayne calculated that in the six years beginning in 1776, Lafayette had spent $140,000 of his own money in the service of the United States, a total that easily reached $200,000 when interest was added.

''He put shoes on the feet of your barefoot and suffering soldiery,'' Hayne cried. ''He spent his fortune on you, he shed his blood for you; and without acquiring anything but a claim upon your gratitude he impoverished himself.'' The bill passed the Senate, 37-7. President James Monroe quickly signed it into law.

Lafayette accepted with the thanks ''of an old American soldier and adopted son of the United States two titles dearer to my heart than all the treasures of the world.'' He quickly sold most of the Florida land.

The old general revisited the battlefield at Yorktown, stood silently before Washington's tomb at Mount Vernon and was Thomas Jefferson's guest at Monticello.

''They flew into the arms of each other,'' one newspaper reported.

On his travels Lafayette witnessed an American presidential election in which Monroe was succeeded by John Quincy Adams. He was called upon for every imaginable service: giving away brides at weddings, laying cornerstones, presenting trophies for prize pigs and cattle.

He traveled south to Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans, then journeyed up the Mississippi to St. Louis and pressed on to Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Boston a distance of more than 5,000 miles for that leg of the trip alone.

''What a journey!'' a Baltimore journal enthused.

A souvenir industry grew up in Lafayette's wake. It produced a cascade of sheet music, portraits, commemorative plates, bottles, jewelry and medals of all descriptions.

Towns and counties in at least 26 states named themselves for Lafayette or for LaGrange, his home in the French countryside.

The park across from the White House was renamed Lafayette Square. And the House of Representatives accepted a full-length portrait of the old general.

After 177 years the painting remains in the House chamber flanking the speaker's chair.

EDITOR'S NOTE Lawrence L. Knutson has covered the White House, Congress and Washington's history for 34 years.

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